This paper illustrates how a complex application, the Data Acquisition and Space Shuttle Launch Control System at NASA Kennedy Space Center, which requires both intensive communications and high processing power, can be mapped into an advanced open system architecture. This is achieved by employing a symmetric, tightly-coupled multiprocessor system which includes a high bandwidth common memory bus, an efficient in t e rr up t distribution se he me, d ed ic a t e d high-performance I I O processors, and runs a multiprocessor real-time UNIX operating system.